Koch Industries Continue Doing Business In Putin's Russia

The company that helped finance the Tea Party and funds an array of toxic, far-right candidates, causes, and "think tanks" holds true to form:

Koch Industries, the Wichita-based petroleum company run by right-wing billionaire Charles Koch, has kept its Russia-based operations going despite Corporate America's mass exodus from the country amid Russia's devastating invasion of Ukraine. 

According to Popular Information, the conglomerate owns a number of Russia-based subsidiaries. Notable among them is Guardian Industries, an Auburn Hills, Michigan-based manufacturer of industrial glass and other products. The subsidiary reportedly runs two Russia-based facilities in Ryazan and Rostov. [snip]

Electronic components manufacturer Molex, another Koch Industries subsidiary, offers its products through a "network of third-party distributors across Russia," as Popular Information reported. 

Two letters released by Molex in February and March indicate that the company has no intention to suspend operations in Russia. [snip]

Koch Industries also owns Koch Engineered Solutions, a subsidiary that "specialize[s] in process and pollution control equipment that help industrial facilities to operate responsibly." According to Popular Information, Koch Engineered Solutions runs a sales office out of Moscow. The company reportedly has a history of evading U.S. sanctions to support its bottom line. [snip]

Still, Koch Industries is not the only laggard. Companies like Halliburton, AbbVie, Bosch, Cargill, Subway, White & Case, Accor, and Amway have apparently refused to sever ties. Many of them have argued that breaking away from the country would be most punishing to Russian citizens, especially amid crippling U.S. sanctions.  (our emphasis)

By the way, that list of "laggard" companies reads like a who's who of Republican Party mega-contributors. Surprise not surprised.

For a company whose founder believes that economic freedom is essential to society's well- being, it only goes to show that they won't let the wanton deaths of thousands of innocent people by a brutal dictator get in the way of making some economic freedom bucks.

(Photo:  Spencer Platt/ Getty Images)

 

American Views Of Russia Tank; Fifth Columnists Scrambling

 

Keep in mind, this Gallup poll was conducted before Russia invaded Ukraine:

Before the invasion of Ukraine, amid rising tensions between Russia and the West, 52% of Americans see the conflict between Russia and Ukraine as a critical threat to U.S. vital interests. That's a change from 2015, after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, when less than half of U.S. adults, 44%, thought it posed that serious a threat.  

These data come from Gallup's Feb. 1-17 World Affairs poll, conducted before the Russian government began it's invasion of Ukraine.

Today, as in 2015, essentially equal percentages of Republicans and Democrats are likely to see the conflict as a critical threat to U.S. vital interests. Currently, 56% of Republicans and 61% of Democrats see the conflict as a critical threat. 

The American Fifth Column -- the Malignant Loser, his rotted out cultists in Congress, and the right-wing media Wurlitzer exemplified by white nationalist frozen food heir Tucker "Rhymes With Fucker" Carlson -- is increasingly isolated in its reverence for Russia's thugocracy:

Along with rising concern about the threats it poses, Russia's already tattered image in the U.S. has deteriorated further over the past year -- 85% of Americans now view the nation unfavorably while 15% have a positive opinion of it. That's an eight-percentage-point increase in unfavorable ratings from 2021 and is, by far, Russia's worst rating in over three decades. The U.S. public generally held more favorable than unfavorable views of Russia prior to 2014. Since then, Americans have been substantially more likely to view the country negatively, as tensions have increased over Ukraine and Russian interference in U.S. elections.

(click to enlarge) 

 

As public opinion hardens against Russia (thanks almost entirely to thug Putin), we can see the memory- holers on the right scrambling, using their usual tactics of deflection and distraction to try to blame President Biden (!) for the war of aggression (see here and here). Nowhere on the right will you see or hear the name of the Malignant Loser, or how he solicited Russian help in the 2016 election, or how he took Putin's side over U.S. intelligence, or how he tried to withhold armaments from Ukraine in exchange for "dirt" on the Bidens, or how he referred to Putin's invasion strategy as "savvy" and "genius," etc., etc.

Some just try to ignore any complicating facts at all with an insincere invocation --

Republican lawmaker who refused to impeach Trump for using US weapons supplies to try to blackmail Zelenskiy into providing "dirt" on Biden to use against him in the 2016 election. https://t.co/azll38wkcr

— Jonathan Landay (@JonathanLanday) February 25, 2022

 

Zelensky doesn't need the blessing of scrotes like "Gym" Jordan.  It's much too late for that. But we can remember the truth, and keep our Fifth Columnists from distorting or destroying the record of their shameless actions.

QOTD II: Putin's Fox Propagandist

From WaPo columnist Margaret Sullivan on pro-Putin propagandist Tucker "Mothertucker" Carlson's embrace of Putin:

"As Russia prepared to invade Ukraine, the biggest star on Fox News was busy doing what he does best: being thoroughly and appallingly wrong.

He defended the murderous instigator Vladimir Putin while disparaging legitimate heroes like Alexander Vindman, the Ukrainian-born retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former White House national security aide who was a key witness to Donald Trump’s abuses of power in his first impeachment and who has warned of Putin’s aggressions — but whom Carlson preferred to paint as some kind of sanctimonious warmonger.  [snip]

Carlson’s pro-Putin act is so helpful that Russian state television has been rebroadcasting it with Russian subtitles. [ed.-- see "America's seditious fifth column," 2nd tweet] Carlson urged Americans to turn against their government on the grounds that higher costs for them, in exchange for a pointless stand against Putin, is a ‘terrible deal for you,’ as Will Saletan summed it up in a Bulwark story comparing him to Charles Coughlin, the WWII-era radio host who defended the Nazis and painted Jews as a conniving force pushing the United States into the European conflict."  (our emphasis)

His affinity for ethno-nationalist, anti-Semitic, anti-democracy thugs puts him right at the heart of the rotted out, fascist cult also known as the Republican Party.